An Animal Model Of Ptsd Following Social Stress

Sarah Mott

School Name

Spring Valley High School

Grade Level

10th Grade

Presentation Topic

Physiology and Health

Presentation Type

Mentored

Mentor

Mentor: Dr. Susan Wood; University of South Carolina School of Medicine

Written Paper Award

2nd Place

Abstract

PTSD is a mental illness that can develop after someone experiences a major traumatic event. PTSD plagues about 7-8% of the American population. Animal models can be used to better understand this disease and to help develop a cure. The purpose of the present investigation was to develop an animal model of the changes that occur during PTSD and to determine whether an individual's coping strategy to stress was correlated with the development of these PTSD symptoms. The hypotheses presented in the investigation were that exposure to social stress would produce increases in blood pressure and yohimbine responsiveness that are similar to those seen in patients with PTSD and that the vulnerability of the animal to these cardiovascular effects of social stress would depend upon its coping strategy. These hypotheses were tested using the resident-intruder paradigm of social stress (Wood & Bhatnagar, 2015). In addition, the effect of the social stress on blood pressure responses to yohimbine was measured 12 days after social defeat in order to assess longer term effects of the stressor that are relevant to PTSD. These results were correlated with behavioral response of the animal to assess the effect of coping strategy. The hypotheses were both supported. A One-way ANOVA test revealed that social defeat significantly enhanced the effect of yohimbine on mean arterial pressure and the animal’s vulnerability to these cardiovascular changes directly correlated to its coping strategy in the resident-intruder model. At α= 0.05, F(2,12) = 6.38576, p = 0.01633. These results support the conclusion that this model accurately represented cardiovascular changes associated with PTSD.

Location

Owens 107

Start Date

4-16-2016 10:30 AM

COinS
 
Apr 16th, 10:30 AM

An Animal Model Of Ptsd Following Social Stress

Owens 107

PTSD is a mental illness that can develop after someone experiences a major traumatic event. PTSD plagues about 7-8% of the American population. Animal models can be used to better understand this disease and to help develop a cure. The purpose of the present investigation was to develop an animal model of the changes that occur during PTSD and to determine whether an individual's coping strategy to stress was correlated with the development of these PTSD symptoms. The hypotheses presented in the investigation were that exposure to social stress would produce increases in blood pressure and yohimbine responsiveness that are similar to those seen in patients with PTSD and that the vulnerability of the animal to these cardiovascular effects of social stress would depend upon its coping strategy. These hypotheses were tested using the resident-intruder paradigm of social stress (Wood & Bhatnagar, 2015). In addition, the effect of the social stress on blood pressure responses to yohimbine was measured 12 days after social defeat in order to assess longer term effects of the stressor that are relevant to PTSD. These results were correlated with behavioral response of the animal to assess the effect of coping strategy. The hypotheses were both supported. A One-way ANOVA test revealed that social defeat significantly enhanced the effect of yohimbine on mean arterial pressure and the animal’s vulnerability to these cardiovascular changes directly correlated to its coping strategy in the resident-intruder model. At α= 0.05, F(2,12) = 6.38576, p = 0.01633. These results support the conclusion that this model accurately represented cardiovascular changes associated with PTSD.